Today, I am reading and commenting on  Leviticus 13.

I was struggling with what to write about this passage, so I did an Internet search to see what other commentary I could find on it.  I came across a blog by an atheist who used it as a basis to condemn belief in the Bible.  However, I found the author’s argument to show a distinct failure to understand the Bible in general, and this passage in particular.  His argument boiled down to saying that it is a terrible idea to go to priests for medical treatment.  The problem is that this passage does not suggest that people should go to priests for medical treatment.  Instead it merely proposes that priests should examine those who have what appear to be infectious skin diseases in order to determine if they are a danger to the community.  It does not address treatment since at the time there was no treatment.  However, it does provide a provision for those who recover, whether through a miracle, their body’s immune system overcoming the infection, or treatment by a medical doctor, a path for reinstatement in the community.  Another blog I came across said that Jewish rabbinical teaching holds that the skin diseases mentioned here represent physical evidence of spiritual sickness.  I do not know if that is true, but I will use that to see a lesson for us here.  In the Church today there are those whom we should put out of the fellowship of Believers because their words and/or actions are a danger to the community of believers.  However, as with this passage, when we do so, we must have a path for their reinstatement.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.